In response, the firm, which has been grappling in the e-commerce space with Amazon, said that it has "explored in depth a spin-off or separation of PayPal".

However, it said that the company is "best served by the current strategic direction and does not believe that breaking up the company is the best way to maximise shareholder value".

"As part of eBay, PayPal is able to leverage the company's technology capabilities, commerce platforms and relationships with retailers, brands and large merchants worldwide. Payment is part of commerce, and as part of eBay, PayPal drives commerce innovation in payments at global scale, creating value for consumers, merchants and shareholders," it said in a statement.

The company's shares rose as much as 12 per cent yesterday after eBay had disclosed Icahn's stake, closing at $54.41 a share.

Icahn had told Bloomberg TV that eBay "hasn't done as well as it should have", before calling for a separation of PayPal - of which sales had increased by 19 per cent last quarter - to boost value.

But eBay believes that keeping PayPal aligned with eBay will ensure that both the payments and marketplace units' strategies are better focused.

Sometimes, the power of the mainframe is the most cost effective answer. Computing's Peter Gothard puts Computing's readers' questions on the future of the mainframe to IBM's Z13 expert Steven Dickens.